Jacob Hilzinger

Jacob Hilzinger

Staff Scientist

Jake received his Bachelor’s degree in Genetics from the University of Wisconsin-Madison where he studied the evolution of gene expression regulation in the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Upon graduation, Jake began his graduate work in Marine Studies at the University of Delaware where he studied the regulation of energy metabolism in green sulfur bacteria (the Chlorobiaceae). Upon joining the Arkin lab as a postdoctoral researcher, he contributed to the Center for the Utilization of Biological Engineering in Space (CUBES) through engineering the edible, filamentous cyanobacterium Arthrospira platensis to produce acetaminophen, phylogenomic mining to enable electrosynthesis of commodity chemicals from carbon dioxide, and engineering diverse PHA synthases for altered substrate specificity. Jake helped create the ARPA-H PROTECT program where he is now a staff scientist overseeing the engineering of synbiotics to prevent lung infections in patients with chronic lung inflammation (e.g. cystic fibrosis). Jake’s research interests include environmental microbiology, microbial physiology/systems biology, genetics, synthetic biology, space bioprocess engineering, and microbiome engineering.